A struggling car parts factory is set to close at a cost of 900 jobs. dealing a further blow to British manufacturing, the decline of which has been accelerated by the recession.
Many thousands of jobs have been lost in the sector, concentrated on traditional industrial areas in Wales, northern England and the Midlands.

Bosch said the decision followed a 45 per cent fall in demand for alternators for luxury vehicles. Remaining production will be transferred to a sister plant in Hungary next year.
An official for the German manufacturing business said the decision to close the Miskin plant near Cardiff was a symptom of the group’s wider difficulties. The company expects to announce its first annual loss in 60 years in April.

The news is varied, but it seems that over 1800 jobs are at risk at Vauxhall UK. This follows the news that the new owners Magna are letting go over 11000 jobs worldwides. The cuts will take place at Luton and Ellesmere Port. Further jobs are likely at other sites.

For those who visit regularly you may have noticed that we are not updating or creating posts everyday. This is mainly because there do not seem to be as many companies laying off people such as they were 6 months ago.

July 29: UAL Corp. lets go of 50 in Missouri.
July 29: General Electric fires another 190 in Indiana.
July 29: Intuit dismisses 120 nationwide.
July 27: General Electric dismisses 93 employees from an oil and gas facility in Wisconsin.
July 27: Verizon Communications fires 8000 workers from its wireless business.
July 23: Air Products and Chemicals fired 1150 workers.
July 21: Continental Airlines lets go of 1700 employees.
July 17: Boeing lays off 130 workers in Alabama.
July 16: Harley-Davidson fires 1000 workers from its operations in the states of Wisconsin, Illinois, and Missouri.
July 16: Cisco Systems lets go of 700 workers from its headquarters in San Jose, CA.
July 14: Norfolk Southern lays off 84 workers from one of its Alabama rail yards.
July 13: Navistar International dismisses 275 workers, most of them from Mississippi.
July 8: AGCO Corp. lays of 154 workers in Kansas.
July 6: The 3M Company lets go of 200 workers in Massachusetts.
July 1: The Dow Chemical Company cuts 2500 jobs. The layoffs are a result of the company closing three Louisiana plants.

UKCV: Jaguar Land Rover is to make 300 job cuts at its Halewood Plant on Merseyside, and further production shutdowns are possible. In a statement today the company said:

Jaguar is to cease production of its X-Type vehicle at the Halewood Plant on Merseyside at year end, with the loss of up to 300 further jobs by voluntary means. We also expect the need to take a further three weeks or more of shutdown of the Halewood plant over the balance of this year, starting in September, because of ongoing weakness in the market.

Navistar International Corp., the largest maker of blast-proof trucks for the U.S. military, will lay off 275 workers at a Mississippi plant because of declining production of the vehicles.

Navistar lost out on a $1.06 billion contract with the U.S. Defense Department last month to build all-terrain trucks that would protect troops in Afghanistan from roadside bombs, to Oshkosh Corp., which received that order.

General Motors has finally filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after weeks of speculation, bidding wars etc.

The restructuring is suspected to change GM in a big way, with over 20000 US workers likely to lose their jobs as GM streamlines its operations. GM currently has 173000 employees across the US, Canada and Mexico.

US Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection gives an American company time to restructure its finances while being protected from its creditors.

US Taxpayers will end up with a 60% stake in GM, with the union, its creditors and federal and provincial governments in Canada owning the remainder of the company.

Hunton & Williams has announced that 23 associates and counsel and 64 staff members have been laid off. The cuts, announced in a firmwide e-mail distributed Thursday morning, are spread across practice areas and offices. They affect two percent of the Richmond-based firm’s 1000 lawyers and six percent of its staff. Today’s cuts are Hunton’s first round of layoffs since the start of the downturn.

Faced with huge losses, rising debts, India’s second largest air carrier by market share, Jet Airways has axed its 120 foreign airhostesses from its 3000 cabin crew in a bid to save on costs. This new round of axing cabin crew, comes close on the heels of Jet Airways terminating contracts of about 60 cabin crew, who were on probation, and another 50 employees who have superannuated, early this month as the airline moved to cut cost and stay trim. See Related Link: India’s domestic airlines to cut 2500 jobs.

In yet another sign of the troubled economic times, a well-known intellectual property boutique Fish & Richardson is laying off 35 lawyers and 85 support staff.

MeadWestvaco Corp. is closing its beverage packaging plant in Wilmington, putting 105 people out of work, the Virginia-based company announced.

German auto parts manufaturer Schaeffler Group KG announced that it could axe up to 4500 jobs in Germany as part of restructuing efforts to save 250 million euros (US$340 million) as the global economic crisis cuts deeply into auto sales.

Toledo-based Dana Holding Corp. has laid off 115 of the 280 employees working at its Fort Wayne axle plant, were in response to Chrysler LLP’s shutdown of plants that make Jeep Cherokees and Wranglers.

ArcelorMittal officials have announced plans to layoff nearly 1000 workers at the steelmaker’s Indiana Harbor plant. The sagging economy, particularly the deep slump in auto manufacturing, has caused steep declines in demand for steel — less than a year after domestic steelmakers had recorded some of their highest revenues in history.

After earlier layoff announcements concerning attorneys in its United States, Asia and Dubai offices, DLA Piper is now officially wielding the ax in the United Kingdom with 24 “fee-earners” and 100 support staff going.

Freescale Semiconductor, Texas-based computer chipmaker, has decided to retrench around 250 professionals at its Bangalore centre, as the company seeks to lower its operational costs by shutting down several manufacturing units across the globe and trim its payroll.

Seagate Technology said that it plans to cut about 1100 jobs from its workforce in a move the computer storage maker expects will reduce costs by about $125 million a year.

Guardian Industries Corp. plans about 130 layoffs at its car window plant in Ligonier. Guardian said it did not know how long its layoffs would last because of the uncertainty surrounding Chrysler’s bankruptcy filing and General Motors Corp.’s factory shutdowns.